Steelers Have a Top Tier Tight End Set and a Backup Battle

The Steelers' tight ends go beyond Eric Ebron and Vance McDonald. Not far beyond them, but there are enough young pieces on the depth chart to consider playing time for possibly four tight ends in 2020.

Tight Ends on the Roster

Eric Ebron
Vance McDonald
Zach Gentry
Kevin Rader
Dax Raymond

The Starters

It starts with Ebron. The offseason signing inked a 2-year, $12 million deal in March and has been posting nothing but social media workouts since. The golf-loving tight end is grinding this offseason and keeps saying his ankle injury from 2019 is healed.

At 6'4, 250-pounds, Ebron is the perfect tight end for a quarterback like Ben Roethlisberger. Pittsburgh loves their big-bodied pass catchers, and Ebron is another addition to the list - with maybe the best hands to play the position in Pittsburgh.

Two years ago, with Andrew Luck at quarterback, Ebron caught 13 touchdowns in his first year in Indianapolis. The falloff was significant in 2019, but so was the quarterback play and his health.

Then, there's Vance McDonald. Before we write the veteran off, let's acknowledge that we're eliminating 2019 from our records. If we're going to talk about Ebron's potential because of what 2018 did for him, we need to do the same for McDonald.

Two years ago, McDonald played in 15 of 16 games - a win for his injury concerns - and caught a career-high 610 yards.

What makes McDonald so dangerous this season is that he no longer needs to be the top option at tight end. He played best when he had Jesse James as a reliable backup but wasn't about to find that same success with Nick Vannett.

This year, it's Ebron as the No. 1 and McDonald as the No. 2. That's fine. The Steelers run two tight end sets all the time, and with two players as highly profiled as these, that's a beefy tight end combination.

The Backups

Does anyone think Gentry has developed enough to play this season? Yes, he saw action in 2019, but his NFL talent wasn't anywhere near there, and without a formal spring, it's hard to say he grew too much as a player.

Instead of looking into the season, because it starts well before that, the final tight end spot on the roster will be decided during training camp.

No, not Kevin Rader. Rader is a quality practice squad player, but he didn't come to Pittsburgh to be the answer at tight end, and he won't become it in 2020.

Gentry was set to be the third tight end off the bench this season until eight days before training camp when the Steelers signed Dax Raymond. Raymond spent last season dealing with a head injury that landed him on IR but saw the potential before the season.

An undrafted free agent out of Utah State, Raymond isn't walking into the Steelers' locker room with anything guaranteed. If he doesn't make the roster at the end of camp, it won't shock.

For now, the undrafted tight end has as much chance as the fifth-round pick does at making the 53-man roster. And until these two battle it out, there's no knowing who that other tight end will be in 2020.

Noah Strackbein is a Publisher with AllSteelers. Follow Noah on Twitter @NoahStrack, and AllSteelers @si_steelers.